Helpless Muslims, victims of brutal gangs in Britain

Far-right gang attacks against Muslims in Britain is increasing and Muslims living in the country are helpless to defend themselves, several media reports show.

The far-right gangs use social media to propagate hatred ideas and British security officials say hate crimes directed at Muslims have increased nearly five-fold in the wake of several attacks in Britain blamed on extremists, AP reported.

In the past three months, mosques across Britain have reported several attacks against worshippers and places of worship.

A series of acid attacks have fuelled fears and sparked defiance among Britain’s Muslim communities, in what has been described as a rising trend at a time of increased Islamophobia.

The offensive appears to have caused most concern among London’s hijab-wearing women, AP added in the report about the ongoing offenses.

Meantime, British newspaper The Guardian said in a report titled ‘Acid Attack on Two Muslim Cousins in London being Treated as Hate Crime’, Jameel Muhktar and Resham Khan were attacked by Acid while sitting in a car at traffic lights in Beckton on the morning of 21 June while out celebrating Khan’s 21st birthday.

Attacks, Result of Islamophobia

Doha based Al Jazeera wrote in an article titled ‘The Connection between Grenfell and Finsbury Park’ that both the Grenfell tower fire and the Finsbury Park attack are the result of the UK government’s vilification of the ‘other’.

Grenfell is a stark example of endemic criminal neglect and exploitation born out of demonization of marginalized communities.

Two very different atrocities have taken place in the early hours of a weeknight morning in London: the catastrophic fire at Grenfell Tower and the racist attack on the Muslim community in Finsbury Park. After both, there was a rush to depoliticize what had happened. But neither just sprung up out of thin air or from actions of lone individuals. Grenfell and Finsbury Park show the outcome of the state’s demonization of marginalized groups.

Although the exact motivation that led a middle-aged white man to drive a van into a group of Muslims outside a mosque – leaving one dead and injuring eight – will be explored in detail in the trial, there is an Islamophobic environment that makes such an act thinkable.

Now, Islamophobia is a specific form of discrimination but, as with Grenfell, a process of othering is identifiable. Muslims are monitored by the state through Prevent. Muslim politicians are accused of having “extremist links” simply because of their faith, the report said.

Formal Definition of anti-Muslim Prejudice

Also, the Brittish newpaper, Independent wrote in an article titled, ‘Government Urged to Agree Formal Definition of Anti-Muslim Prejudice to Tackle Discrimination” that there is need to define hate crimes against followers of Islam in the same way anti-Semitism was demarcated last year.

The Government should adopt a definition of anti-Muslim prejudice and commission an independent review of its Prevent program to help Muslims integrate into British society, a new report has found.

The commission found a strong sense that Muslims and Islam are “unfairly targeted”, with the fear of discrimination putting off young British Muslims from engaging in politics and other aspects of public life.

The anti-extremism Prevent program was also raised as an issue in every one of the 11 cities the commission visited to gather evidence.

The commissioners believe that tackling extremism and radicalization would be “better achieved with a program that has greater trust, particularly from the UK’s Muslim communities”.

Re-Start Britain Relationship with Muslims

In similar report, The Guardian said that Britain needs to reset relations with its Muslims. Britain’s relationship with its Muslim community has become so brittle that it needs to be reset from scratch, according to one of the UK’s most prominent Muslims.

Speaking from her home in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in the aftermath of the London Bridge attack, Conservative peer Sayeeda Warsi said: “When things go wrong with an iPhone or a coffee machine, pressing the restart button is usually a good, safe place to start. Right now, Britain’s relationship with her Muslims is within that frozen, overloaded, splurging episode – we need to press the button.”